A Money Coach in Canada

A few items I don’t want to take up north. It’s yours for the asking, except I do need a commitment that you’ll come get it either tomorrow (Fri), over the weekend (Feb 14, 15) or very early next week.

Wood bookshelf, deep brown paint. Decent shape, solid wood (not ikea – this will last and last). Could use another lick of paint but not bad. 48H, 46 W, 9 D 4 (built in) shelves, including bottom. Sorry, no photo.

5 Drawer stainless steel filing cabinet, piles of character. I hand scrubbed it with steel wool to get to the stainless steel, but the fronts of the drawers are still beige. Solid piece of furniture – would look esp. great somewhere funky/industrial. Note: I haven’t looked at the back in 3 years. Not sure of condition, but should be fine. 68inches H, 28 Deep, 15 W

TV. JVC, 13 inch, the old fashioned kind. Remember those? Good for those who want one, but without it dominating the room.

Piano Books, Royal Conservatory, various gradesand Theory Rudiments (basically unused). Collections of Elton John sheet music, Andrew Lloyd Weber. May be convinced to part with the Bach/Beethoven/Chopin books too.

Mac Wireless Keyboard and Mouse (@brianleroux, you were right when you said I’d never use them)

Interested? tweet me, facebook me a msg, leave a comment or e-mail me at n g z c a (no spaces) not at hotmail, nor at gmail, but the other oldy but goody dot com (sorry to be cryptic. don’t want robots to spam me)

I switched to audible downloads and don’t want to haul these up north with me. If you want any, they’re yours for the asking (but you’ll need to pick up). They’re all paperback unless specified, and all in decent condition. Any left over will either go to the library or recyling bin.

Friends, I do believe I’ve just enjoyed the steal of the year, and it was a BC getaway.

The Galiano Inn & Spa has a two-for-one weekdays through March and I can’t say enough good things about my experience.

For $125 a night, my best friend of 20 years (we were thrown together as roomates in 1st yr UBC, and have kept going strong ever since) and I got a 5-star getaway of Gulf Island luxury.

We each had a room with french doors opening right out onto the ocean front. The rooms were lovely – elegantly appointed, mediterranean feel, cork floors, heated bathroom floors, deep baths, and environmentally friendly soaps etc. Mmmmm.

Breakfast was included, and I expected coffee and perhaps a danish. Instead, omelettes with smoked salmon, goat cheese and pumpkin seeds, or crepes with fruit and ricotta cheese were on offer. And this was preceded by fresh OJ and just-out-of-the-oven muffins.

Also included was 30 minutes in the spa steam room plus another 30 minutes in the flotation room. I added on a 60-minute reflexology treatment for $100 and it was the best I ever had. Four days later, my feet still feel good. Louanne is a quintessential west-coast healer and among other things has me convinced to spend more time walking barefoot on the earth.

Dinner was also exceptional. The somalier was simply perfect – the exact right balance of maintaining a slightly fussy air, professional, yet not snooty. Their lamb is to die for apparently. Several of the other guests raved (I can’t bring myself to eat lamb, myself).

The daschunds particularly appreciated that there was a pet-friendly unit, although they messed things up by barking in my absence and disturbing other guests. Bad Dogs!

Lest I appear all uncharacteristically shi-shi, I hasten to add we all (weinerdogs too) hiked to the bluffs one day, and walked through the forest (but not barefoot) to the Hummingbird Pub the next.

If you are looking for a high-end getaway at an incredibly reasonable budget (for its class) book yourself in! Let Jenny (the incomparable manager) know Nancy sent you.

The north, more than the rest of Canada, needs healthcare professionals: physicians, nurses, lab technicians, and social workers. In fact, some of the north has a suicide rate multiple times the national average, in part because we need more people in supportive roles. If I can help fill those roles and make a difference, well… that’s what I’m doing this for.

And in the immediate term, the Federal Gov’t budget included significant funding for Infrastructure/Social Housing Investment = we’ll need Engineers! any Civil, Structural, Geo-tech engineers reading this, contact me! Some of this may include alternative energy infrastructure so that may be of real interest to some readers.

And last, if any of my finance friends – accountants, eg. – from Vancity are looking for a change, find me!

Here are a couple other areas I see on the horizon that I find extremely interesting:

1. Cdn. Sovereignty over the Arctic Ocean, with its mineral and gas deposits is increasingly fragile. By 2013 Canada needs to submit its “pitch” for extended sovereignty to the U.N. China, the US, and Russia are also more than a little interested in the area – geopolitics in action! The Cdn gov’t will be embarking on an ambitious ocean-mapping project , building a high-arctic research station, and I would imagine investing in infrastructure like ports and airstrips (I’m just surmising).

2. Another development that I’ll be monitoring closely are the pipelines: The Arctic Pipeline signed off on by Sarah Palin, and Obama (a few days ago), and the ongoing discussions re: Mackenzie Pipeline.

So, that’s it as I understand it. Awesome, huh? To be a part of something good, of finding the right people to join the public service, I am uncharacteristically humbled. And excited.

Oh, and my many social-media pals, you can believe social media will be a significant part of strategies I/we develop – in fact, I’m completely serious, it was the photos on Flickr and the Yellowknife Facebook Groups that ultimately convinced me to move up there.

I imagine Linked In will be a much bigger part of my life. If you’d like to connect there, simply as a contact, or because you may be up for a northern adventure yourself, please link with me!

Vancouver-based pals: the lovely MJ aka “Urbanista” is organizing a meet & greet & goodbye for me at the Irish Heather, Sunday the 15th (I leave on the 20th) at 4pm. Please contact her to RSVP (ha! almost wrote RRSP!) and drop by. Would love to say hi & bye 🙂

On Saturday at 9:15 pm, I handed in my pass and walked out of Citizens Bank of Canada for my last time.
All good things must come to an end.

Many readers will know of my longstanding love affair with Canada’s best-kept-secret bank. It’s appeal to me has been threefold:

First and foremost, the fact that it’s owned by Vancity, a credit union, makes all the difference. It means the profits don’t go to shareholders around the world, who may or may not give a damn about Canada. Instead the profits go back to the community. Each year, members of the bank get to both nominate and vote for who gets the profits. Loads of non-profits, mostly local but some in other parts of the globe, have received significant boosts from CB. For example, a Soya Coop in Ghana received $60K for two consecutive years. Last year, Habitat for Humanity received $50K. I personally also helped build the home the money funded. Cool, eh?

The pricing can’t be beat. The chequing account is completely free, plus now you don’t get dinged for international ATM use. The savings account usually (but not always) is the highest in Canada. So start saving there, if nothing else!

It’s online. I don’t know about you, but going into a branch is the last thing I want to do with my time. CB is all online, baby, with a couple exceptions in downtown Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver. Inside scoop: It’s phones are open 24/7/365 and the standard is for every call to be picked up within 1 minute and we nearly always hit that target.

I’m really proud that Canada has this bank – ING isn’t the only game in town! (although frankly I think ING is fabulous too. Really set the pace.)

So a year ago, as many readers may recall, I pitched and got a trial role of Bank Evangelist – I wanted to tell more Canadians about CB, esp. using social media. But alas, barely a few months into it, we all know what happened in the financial industry. So back I went to being a banker instead of the evangelist.

Meantime, an amazing opportunity opened up in Yellowknife, NWT, and I got the job. I’ll blog about this tomorrow (a number of people have been asking).

Leaving a workplace is never easy. I was there 3.5 years, albeit part-time, and as you can guess, am deeply passionate about the bank. (That doesn’t change just because I’m leaving!) I met so many competent, committed and interesting people and over time, you just do start to care about people you rub shoulders with day after day. I’ll miss them. A Lot. And of course I also met a small handful of rascals who just.didn’t.get.it <le sigh>. So like with all changes in life, much as I’m looking forward to my new life in Yellowknife there is the cloud of “loss” that departure from a workplace brings.

Anyway, so long, adieu, Citizens Bank of Canada. I still have my money with you and don’t think I’m not still going to evangelize you so get ready for 5000 new applications from the NWT.

Readers: when was the last time you left a workplace? Was it hard for you too? Or were you more focused on the next thing?